In recent years, from the standpoint of environmental friendliness such as saving of space and power, an increasing number of commercial products have adopted liquid crystal panels or organic electroluminescence panels as display devices, as represented by liquid crystal monitors, liquid crystal TVs, mobile phones, smartphones, electronic books and notebook personal computers. In particular, in various kinds of electronic apparatuses such as smartphones, electronic books and mobile phones, transparent members or semitransparent members are used, for example, as substrates which constitute liquid crystal panels or touch panels, or as cover members of mobile phones.
If there are flaws, stains or foreign matters on the transparent member or semitransparent member, the quality of the electronic apparatus itself deteriorates. There are cases in which a thin film (including, e.g. an outer paint as a design, a logo, etc.) is patterned on the transparent member or semitransparent member. In such cases, if a defect of such a thin film fails to be inspected and the thin film is assembled in the electronic apparatus, the quality of the electronic apparatus itself would deteriorate as a matter of course, and furthermore other members would become useless in cases of repair, leading to a considerable loss of material.
There have been proposed various kinds of inspection apparatus and inspection methods for inspecting members which are applied to such electronic apparatuses.